MP govt in no mood to agree to teachers' demands

The Madhya Pradesh government has said it would not change the status and wages of thousands of school teachers, who have been demanding that their services be transferred to the school education department and the arrears of the Sixth Pay Commission be paid in one instalment with immediate effect.

At present, more than 0.2 million teachers in the primary, middle and higher secondary levels are treated as panchayat and municipal employees. On September 13 and later on September 25, "Adhyapak Samvarg" teachers launched a massive strike to press for their demands.

However, following a Jabalpur High Court order the police detained them and sought an explanation. "Approximately 45,000 agitating teachers have been served notices as to why not their services be terminated," said a state government official.

"Adhyapak Samvarg teachers were recruited by local self-governing bodies. If we absorb them in the school education department like earlier, there will be a huge burden of Rs 16,000-17,000 crore on the state government," S R Mohanty, additional chief secretary school education department told Business Standard . "More importantly, it would be a violation of the 74th Constitution amendment under which the local self-governing bodies have rights to run education institutes."

There are two cadres of teachers in Madhya Pradesh: The Samvida Shikshak cadre and the Adhyapak Samvarg. The Samvida Shikshak is a three-year contract cadre, the other - the Adhyapak Samvarg is a grade and long-term cadre. Both these cadres are recruited and paid by district and Janpad level for rural teachers and at the municipal level for urban area teachers.

Samvida Shala Shikshak (contractual teachers) cadre was constituted in 2005. The contractual teachers were recruited for a period of three years on a fixed salary. Their salaries were revised from Rs 2,500, Rs 3,500 and Rs 4,500 to Rs 5,000, Rs 7,000 and Rs 9,000 for grade-I, II and III, respectively, in 2011. Since 1998, the state government has discontinued recruiting regular teachers in the state education department.

While Adhyapak Samvarg teachers are recruited for long term on a different salary basis. Mohanti also argued that all agitating teachers have been recruited through a proper process and it is nowhere mentioned in their service rules that they would be paid salaries on a par with that of state government employees.

"Even though it was not mentioned in their service rules, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had agreed them to increase their salaries and arrears, in accordance with the pay panel recommendations, in four-five instalments by September 2017, but they want its immediate implementation so that they can demand for the Seventh Pay Commission wages," Mohanti said.